Benjamin and I have actually known each other for most of our lives. We grew up in the same church and I was friends with his sisters. If you ask him, he will tell you he has always had a crush on me. To be honest, I never really noticed him, but that probably had something to do with him being 5 years younger than me. Our families went to the same church for most of our growing up, but when I went off to college, we all had lost contact.

 It wasn't until about a decade later that Ben was talking to one of his brothers and my name came up and they wondered where I was now. Curiosity got the better of him, so Ben searched for me on facebook and added me as a friend. I honestly thought nothing of it and, of course, accepted the request. And that began the occasional posts of his crossing my timeline and vice versa.

Now, during this time, I was in Washington state on a travel nurse assignment. It was the farthest from home, the longest assignment I had taken, and the schedule was terrible for a night shifter. I was so incredibly homesick. Around then, Ben had posted on his facebook and asked if anyone would like to go to Turkey Run with him. (Turkey Run is a state park with trails/hikes, tubing, canoeing that I had really enjoyed going to as a kid.) I, of course, being homesick, commented and said I would love to go, but needed him to design and create a teleportation device so I could get home in time. We ended up messaging each other after that and started messaging pretty much everyday. After talking every day through text and phone conversations, I asked him if he was ever going to ask me out on a date, he obliged and we made plans to go on our first date the next time I was visiting my family.

Our first date was in July of 2017, we met at Chili's for dinner. The conversation was comfortable and flowed even better in person than it did through our talking over the phone every day. His original plan was to take me to the county fair, but it poured down rain during our dinner. We stopped by the fairgrounds and walked around. He was heckled by almost every vendor with comments like, "if you win her a bear, she'll hold your hand". He asked me if he needed to win me a bear to be able to hold my hand, the obvious answer was yes! Just kidding..... We decided the fair was a bust and headed to the theater to watch whatever movie was starting around the time we arrived. I don't think either of us could tell you what the movie was, to be honest. Maybe Baby Driver?

He asked me on a second date and I obliged. Little did either of us know, it would end up being dinner with my family for my cousin's birthday. He was a good sport about it and agreed to come. After dinner, he took me to Dairy Queen and asked me to 'go steady'. Of course, I made fun of him for that, but said yes and our dating life and this adventure officially began.